Israel has no intention of reopening its two crossings into Gaza after the war, Foreign Minister Eli Cohen told reporters, in a statement that appeared to run contrary to the international desire to eventually unite the territory with Palestinian areas of the West Bank.
“The understanding in Israel is that there will be no more contact between Israel and Gaza,” Cohen told reporters in a briefing on Monday.
“The District Coordination and Liaison Office can become a museum,” he said.
There “won’t be a connection of goods and there won’t be a connection of people, including workers,” he stated.
His words referenced two crossing that have been the sole passageways between Israel and Gaza since the IDF withdrew from the coastal enclave in 2005.
The crossing at Kerem Shalom is the major commercial passageway for goods to enter and exit Gaza and the one at Erez is for pedestrian passage.
Egypt controls the the third land crossing at Rafah, but it is not designed for heavy commercial use.
Israel closed Kerem Shalom and Erez after the October 7 attack in which Hamas infiltrated southern Israel killing over 1,200 people and seizing over 239 hostage.
It has insisted that it will not reopen them until the hostages are released. An ad-hoc system has developed to allow for limited humanitarian aid to reach the coastal enclave through Rafah.
Cohen’s statement to reporters were among the first indication that Israel did not plan to reopen those passages even once the hostages were released.
How would Gaza be supplied?
At the press conference Cohen said he favored a plan now under serious discussion by which goods would enter and exit Gaza via a newly established sea route between the enclave and Cyprus.
There has long been an argument that Gaza would benefit from a sea route, rather than relying on costly land transportation of goods, but it has not been envisioned as a replacement for the Israeli crossings.
Miriam Marmur, public advocacy director for Israeli left-wing NGO Gisha — Legal Center for Freedom of Movement, said her organization opposes the temporary and permanent closure of the two Israeli crossings.
“Obviously there is a desire that has been expressed in the past and more recently including by many in the current Israeli government to permanently divide Gaza from the West Bank and from Israel,” Marmur said.
Such a step “undermines the possibly of a Palestinian state that would include both Gaza and the West Bank,” she stated.
The Israel-Gaza crossings have been the central traffic point for the enclave because the Gaza and West Bank economies are integrated with the Israeli one.
The bulk of Gaza’s exchange of goods is with sovereign Israel and Palestinian areas of the West Bank.
All three entities — PA governed territory in the West Bank, Gaza, and sovereign Israel —use the use the same monetary currency, have similar pricing structures and are part of the same customs envelope.
Passage between Gaza and the West Bank through Israel, particularly for goods, is also considered the quickest way to link the two territories.
Its presumed that eventually the two entities would be linked into one future Palestinian state, even though Fatah run Palestinian Authority governs Areas A and B of the West Bank and Hamas rules Gaza.
US and European officials have been clear that they plan to push for a two-state resolution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, including a plan to put the PA in Gaza and link the two territories.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said that he supports a rebuilt Gaza for Palestinians but one run by a newly created Palestinian government, not the PA. He has also insisted that Israel must maintain security control of the areas. He has been silent on the issue of Palestinian statehood.
Marmur said that Cohen’s statement shows that the issue with the passages is political and not security related.
Israel, she said, has a basic obligation to facilitate and supply basic humanitarian aid.